Skip to main content
Back The Picower Institute

Header Give Now Link

  • Give Now
Menu
Menu
  • People

    • People
    • Faculty
    • Director
    • Affiliates
    • Picower Advisory Board
    • Administrators
    • Contact
  • Research

    • Research by Topic
    • Discoveries
    • Innovations & Inventions
    • Aging Brain Initiative
    • Alana Down Syndrome Center
    • Core Facilities
    • Research Browser
  • News

    • News
    • All
    • In the media
    • Newsletter
    • e-Newsletter
  • Events

    • Events
    • All
    • Seminars
    • The Picower Lectures
    • Special Events
    • Symposia
    • Internal Events
    • Past Events
  • Support

    • Support
    • Areas of Need
    • Ways of Giving
    • Volunteer for Research
  • About

    • Timeline
    • Education and Training
    • Welcoming and Outreach
    • Careers
    • Climate Action
Subscribe
Please Choose One or More

THE PICOWER INSTITUTE

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
43 Vassar Street, Bldg. 46-1303
Cambridge, MA 02139
(+1) 617-324-0305
(+1) 617-452-2588

Social Media

  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • Accessibility
Innovations & Inventions
TRAP

The brain is densely packed with many different types of cells, making it hard for researchers to isolate particular kinds of cells to see what genes they are expressing under different circumstances. That can hinder research that focuses on the activity of particular cell types, such as studies of Huntington’s disease in which striatal neurons degenerate.

TRAP works by tagging polyribosomes from desired cells and then capturing them with a bead.
 

To highlight the genetic translation activity of specific cell types in the central nervous system, Myriam Heiman led the invention of TRAP, or Translating Ribosomal Affinity Purification (published in Cell in 2008 and further described in Nature Protocols in 2014) while at the Rockefeller University as a post-doctoral fellow working with Paul Greengard and Nathaniel Heintz.

The technique starts by targeting cells of a specific type based on particular genetic characteristics and then attaches a fluorescent tag to the polyribosomes in the cells as they are processing messenger RNA (mRNA). A bead coated with a molecule to capture the fluorescing tags then captures only the tagged polyribosomes and the attached mRNA. This enables the technique to isolate the mRNA specifically being expressed by targeted cell types.

At the Picower Institute, Heiman employs TRAP in studies not only of Parkinson’s disease but also Huntington’s disease, in which medium-sized spiny neurons of the striatum are earliest and most dramatically affected.

Print

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
43 Vassar Street, Bldg. 46-1303
Cambridge, MA 02139
(+1) 617-324-0305
(+1) 617-452-2588

Social Media

  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • Accessibility
Subscribe
Please Choose One or More
From: https://picower.mit.edu/innovations-inventions/trap